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An adventuring party recruited from Osirion teleports into Azir on the 8th of Desnus. Rahadoum's recruiting contact in Osirion wrote ahead to note they were expected. Couple of guys he's known a long time - a wizard, a ranger - and a new guy, sorcerer, probably to replace the cleric they usually travel with. They spend two days in Azir getting oriented and head out to the front. The ranger wears an unusually high quality amulet of Nondetection; the sorcerer wears a headband for intelligence, which is a bit unusual as sorcerers usually don't need it to cast, but some variants do; they are otherwise unremarkable. Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral, no reading, which could mean neutral or 'hiding it'. They work quickly and effectively, manage resources reasonably well, get recommended to higher-ups for a closer look on that account.
:I could shout very very loudly and it would be distracting? I actually think that the way Aroden did the spell, there is not enough 'surface area' where I can get through that I could harm you even if I wanted to. I am not really a strong enough Mindspeaker for it anyway. Vanyel can kill people by hitting them hard enough with Mindspeech, but he is Vanyel:
Leareth is smiling broadly. He's very pleased about this.
Leareth does a few more tests; he tries very hard to read Khemet's thoughts without him projecting Mindspeech, and can't, that's working as intended and he can't route around it. Very clever.
Aroden examines it with his magic senses, pronounces it 'worked as intended', and since that went quickly and without any complications, maybe they can just go get lunch now.
He is very impressed with Aroden.
They head out of the Work Room to eat lunch somewhere more comfortable. There are people around, so they talk about things that aren't that important - immigration, the health of Khemet's children, Abadar being able to pick more clerics in Velgarth now. But if they wanted to discuss something sensitive they could just do it over Mindspeech.
Leareth has passive Thoughtsensing open but he wasn't actively probing. He tries.
Leareth conveys this to Khemet. :Is there a reason you asked me to?: She seems perfectly ordinary to him - well, prettier than average, he doesn't normally notice that at all, but unremarkable otherwise.
:Something felt off. I wouldn't bet money on it being - well, I'd bet money on it being something but it could easily be a death in the family this morning or an uncanny resemblance to an ex, I wouldn't bet on it being important. - it wasn't that I was rude to her, I was rude after I noticed because I was trying to get more of a read...:
:Hmm. If I run into her again I can try to read her, the shielding effect here is often inconsistent that way: It's still odd to him, Velgarth shielding doesn't work that way at all.
Shrug. :I'm sure you vet them.: But he keeps the conversation even more inane for the rest of lunch.
Leareth tries to read her again, not particularly expecting it to work. He does focus on her face enough that he expects he'll remember it and be able to ask Aroden about her vetting; he trusts Khemet's judgement a lot, even if Khemet is right that it's probably something boring.
Still hedging him out. She glances at him and looks away quickly when she sees him studying her.
After lunch he has previously-laid plans to tour Egorian and embarks on them.
Leareth goes back to his own work, but discreetly joins Khemet again whenever they're both free that evening.
And the other advantage of Mindspeech is that, for example, Leareth can while kissing Khemet also talk to him.
:I have considered it and, while I was not very lucid at the time, I am now and I still think that I love you:
:Gosh. I'm sure I will eventually find a way to squeeze a political advantage out of that somewhere. It would probably work better for that if I did not love you too.: